Cracking/ Deformation After Removal from Service

Yes they can depending on the method, and individual removing them. Give a guy a 10 foot breaker bar and he can destroy any fitting you'd like.

"TJ" certainly gets about, he's been bugging me for years!

Been around almost long enough to collect my Medicare, but what in the h**l is TJ?

Never heard the term before or used it.

I must meet this TJ fellow... Is he Related to that Murphy fellow?

TJ was known as "Ivan" in my last job. He could bend, break or generally wreck anything just by looking at it.

I know a couple TJ's... On occasion they come in real handy.

As you are aware there are many grades of carbon steel, and I would guess this tee is of low carbon content. Normally low carbon grade is tough to crack, even with its thining from use. I would suggest the stress that made it crack was introduced when it was serviced as well as its loss of mass through oxidation (or from flow..??).

It is of material A234 wrought CS (forged). None of the adjacent fittings had any reportable evidence of wall thinning (a feature of Flow Accelerated Corrosion). On the average pH=10.67, max temp=550F with no corrosive agressors.

Thanks for the continued interest.

A good answer and a seldom considered cause.

I'm surprised how few people really know or think about electrolysis. But it seems to rear up it's ugly head from time to time causing a good deal of damage. Just about any time you have a (even slightly) conductive fluid and a DC electrical current, you stand a good chance to see some very interesting corrosion. Or even just two different pieces of metal in contact...

I'm not saying this is something to point the finger at, but don't completely overlook it. If it turned out to be electrolysis, you might have a bunch of other problems elsewhere in the system.

GA, very good point.

Knew a guy back in the day, had a 38' Roamer Steel Hull Cabin Cruiser on Lake Michigan.

One spring during re-commissioning, he connected his 12 volt electrolysis protection system backwards.

My Gawd, the damage that was done to the hull in 4 to 5 months was unreal.

I did some tests last week dealing with Electrolysis... I was able to corrode things at a rate you would not believe! Check out this picture:

That was a new, chrome plated, hydraulic piston with a brass piston head when I started. That part spent exactly 1 hour partially submerged (you can easily see the water line) in a tank of (replicated) sea water with +24V applied. ALL the corrosion damage was accomplished in 1 hour.

The picture below was a solid brass wear shoe out of another hydraulic pump:

This part spent 6 hours partially submerged in the same (replicated) saltwater with +24V applied. When I measured the thickness I found that nearly half of the material was missing (0.101 start 0.061 end)... That part was new polished solid brass 6 hours before this picture was taken.

What I found even more curious, was the fact that the part pictured below had no voltage applied to it directly, but simply was submerged in the fluid while two other pieces had voltage applied to them. This corrosion was caused by simply sharing the same fluid as some parts that were electrically charged. In theory, no electrical current flowed through this part (6 hours):

Electrolysis can do some serious damage, and can go on for a long long time before someone finally realizes what is going on to destroy their components so quickly.

Is this from a boiler?

Is it possible this fitting was already thin when it was put into service some 40yrs ago? Obviuosly the other fittings have been checked and appear okay?

What has circulating in that fitting? What was the pressure at which was usually used? Is it possible for the tee to develop porosity, which were acting as chemical deposits. After removal, in air, those chemicals react with air and create a compound (like Fe2O3) that is expanding in the porosity, breaking the fitting. Or some chemical that can cause caustic embrittlement